Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-11-16
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY.
Bishop Keane's Plea for Higher Edu.
catiOnal Advantages In this Country.

The following is printed from advance sheets o.
the Cathotic World for December, being part o.
Bishop Keanes second article on the catholic
| university:
Thanks to the noble labors OF our predecessors
our country is blessed with many excellent semi
nares for the training Of young eccesiastics, tus
as with many excellent colleges for the education
OF our lay youth. But our seminaries can no more
take the place OF a university course OF divinity
than our colleges can supply for the superior
education given In its other faculties. The young
ecclesastic who by the time OF his ordination, has
gained sufficfent acquaintance with divinity
studies 10 1T him for starting in the ordinary work
situation at all, that he Is but a novice in the
divine science, that he has but climbed the lower
heights or the mountain OF sacred learning, and
attained TO but a rudimentary development OF the
Intellectual capabilities for which the vast field
OF the holy ministry gives scope.
Why should the church in America lack any
educational advantage which any other country
posse SEES? II our cOuntrys providenttal vocation,
or that Of the church in our New World, were
tions We might be content to hold lower educa-
cational position than theirs. But the testimonies
or great minds adduced in our last article are quite
TO the contrary Hence whatever means OF higher
education any other country possesses America
needs, and, with Gods help, must have. We need
facilities for students OF exceptional ability TO ad
vance higher and farther than the limits OF the or
binary seminary course. We need home OF
sacred science where priests who have had some
experience In the praC t1cal ministry, and have
thence learned TO appreciate better what they
might be and are not, may come TO stay awhile
In order TO FURNISH the learning they
already have, and 10 take a course in some spe-
cialty In which they wish to perfect themselves.
we need an arsenal or learning TO Which the
priests Of our country, and It's aty too may at any
time have recourse for all the offensive and defenS-
I've armor OF which they may stand in need amid
the thousand piercing questions that press upon
them. We need an Institution whose watch-tOwers
shall scan the fartheSt horizon or the learning OF
the day, and whose spires shall lift the cross OF
Christ 50 high that IT will be beacon guide to the
loftieSt intellectS In our land. We need q true
university, which will show TO our doubling age
all knowledge meeting in the divine truth and ra.
dating from 1t. We need nursery and training
gr0unQ for the scholars OF the future-SchOiars
whose genius will be like that OF our country the
freeSt and bOldest and nObleSt yet the safest and
most conservative OF all.
The halls OF the universities are to be wide open
TO every one, without limit or distinction, who Is
able and anxious 10 profit by the superior courses
taught IN Them As the professional chairs are tC
be open TO the whole world, TO laymen and clericS
TO secularS and regulars, with no distinction save
that OF merit, so Tue students benches are 10 have
no conditions save those OF fitness for higher
studies and zeal 10 profit by them. We look for
ward with glad expectancy to the day when ouI
divinity college will be surrounded with homes in
which students not only OF various dioceseS OF
provinces but also or the various religious cOngre-
cations, viii live and study under sucn discipline
as their superiors may determine, and at the same
time attend the university courses, thus imbibing
at one the spirit OF their institute and the nObiesl
streams OF sacred learning and building up real
TcpuUIlC Vi
Nor can the establishment OF the university be
less JOY 10 the laity than TO the clergy. Nowhere
In the world can body OF Catholics be found who
are more devoted TO their clergy, more proud OF
their excellence, more sensitive about the churchs
honor and the Intellectual standing OF her minis
ters, than the Catholics OF America. Far from
grudglng that the clergy should have the first
fruits OF this institution OF higher learning they
Will assuredly consider IL eminently proper, and
would regret TO see 1t otherwise. Besides, 1t need
not be long, please God before the faculties for lay
students Will be gradually added to the faculty OF
divinity. AS the growth OF central life-germ be-
gins as soon as 1t finds the needed environment and
temperature, so from this central, lte-glving,
sacred science will grow forth, we trust with little
II any delay all the other branches OF study that
Will gradually complete the full rOundneSS OF uni
verSity education. Then the clergy will share
with the laity and the laity with the clergy in all
the rich abundance OF the Intellectual feast Thus
the studies OF each order In the university will be
enlightened, and broadened, and polished by In.
teligent and judicouS contact with the studies OF
every other, and the best minds In our clergy and
laity Will be drawn and bound together in closer
ties OF Intellectual brotherhood.